Burning of Fossil Fuels—
Many believed that the burning of hydrocarbon-containing fossil fuels by humankind has contributed materially to global warming.2 Life on Earth is part of the natural carbon cycle.3 Plants have for millions of years combined chlorophyll, water and sunlight to convert atmospheric carbon in the form of carbon-dioxide (CO2) into hydrocarbons and, along with geologic processes, have sequestered this carbon in various carbon-bearing deposits, e.g., coal seams. The burning of these carbon-rich deposits by humankind has in effect reversed in only a few hundred years the natural sequestrating of billions of tons of carbon that had occurred over tens of millions of years, materially altering the natural carbon cycle and the environment. The re-release of large quantities of sequestered carbon, specifically its release into the atmosphere as CO2, has disturbed the global environment, and may be turning the Earth's environmental clock back to a time and to conditions that predate and could be hostile to the development of humankind.4 CO2 is one of a group of potent greenhouse gases.5 Their release has contributed to recent changes (and is projected to contribute to undesirable future changes) in global temperature, weather and the carbon cycle; in other words the Greenhouse Effect.6 To limit, and even reverse the effects of greenhouse gases on the planet, it is highly desirable for humankind to reduce, limit and perhaps even eliminate future releases of CO2 into the environment.
That is why this disclosure seeks to promote method for hydrogen extraction from hydrogen-bearing materials which limit the production and release of CO2, in order to minimize the release of carbon already sequestered in such deposits, and other starting materials. It is believed that the burning and capture, compression, storage, transport and re-sequestering of CO2 is less desirable, and is likely to be less economical when all the external environmental risks and consequences are considered, and/or may prove to be technically, geologically, socially and/or politically infeasible for a wide range of applications.
The Hydrogen Economy—
In partial recognition of the negative effects of carbon release, some have called for the development of a hydrogen economy.7 A number of different hydrogen economies may be envisioned using hydrogen in various ways. However, to achieve this vision of the hydrogen economy, there is a pressing need to find sources of hydrogen that do not also result in the release of substantial quantities of CO2 into the environment.8 To minimize the impact of the hydrogen economy on the environment, alternative safe, clean and environmentally acceptable sources of hydrogen, and processes for extracting hydrogen from those resources, must be developed and employed.
It is, therefore, an objective of the present inventions, apparatus, methods, processes and designs to present new inventions and improvements to previously disclosed inventions, apparatus, methods, processes and/or designs so as to produce “green hydrogen” from “black carbon” containing starting materials.
The environmental perspective of the disclosed inventions is that the carbon in any starting materials should be a by-product. The negative impact of CO2 release on the environment makes it a by-product. It is envisioned that unburned carbon, substantially contained in the 3D3P step by-products, will be re-sequestered to minimize its release. For example, this may be accomplished by returning the processed carbon to the underground seam where the coal starting materials originally came from, perhaps in a vitreous form.9 Other objectives and advantages will be more fully apparent from the following disclosure and appended claims.